“and in a sharply-worded editorial the nation’s top law enforcement official accused those worried about the surveillance program of being either criminals or conspiracy theorists”
“In some cases, the bill envisages monitoring the information in real time”
Two days before the country is set to elect a new president, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled that the Islamist-dominated parliament must be dissolved and that former regime figures must be allowed to hold political office, effectively approving the candidacy of presidential hopeful and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.
AJ news this morning talked about the “deep state” in Egypt. i.e.:
The reactionary militaristic power embedded in the state’s institutions: the courts etc.
This set me to wondering about the nature of NZ’s “deep state” and what is involved? The treasury? The media? The courts? The SIS?…. and how much it has been infiltrated by the so-called “neoliberal” discourses and practices?
Carol the questions you raise, are the questions which most want to blow off as “conspiracy”, and yet there are examples even in the MSM every day, which illustrate the realities of how the world is run, Egypt being the recent predictable example, shown by your post.
People want (need) to believe in accidents, coincidence, or stupidity of government..
As I’ve heard it Egypt was in a bind anyway. Aren’t there two candidates, one from the Muslim Brotherhood, with a fear of them by many as they may institute sharia law, and some guy who is part of the old regime.
Can someone help me with this — I woke in the freezing dead of night terrified with the thought that the TPP could be used by Monsanto and Dow to force GM substances into our food and feed markets ?
Just before the last election Nick Smith was sprung in his ignorance of a new study being done to support GM substances, and only recently in the House someone referred to ‘innovative’ agriculture.
Anyone know anything more about this study ?
The most idiotic thing of all is that we are one of the last bastions of non GMO — surely, this is a potential market of huge value ?
How do we oppose the TPP when none of it will be made public until after it is signed ??
So the question is how to oppose before you know when to oppose or what it is you are opposing; and then how to get out of the loop which uses a clause that cannot be refuted because it exists in the grey area of the probable?
The simple answer is to side step. Then you at least eliminate the imbalance of preparing for opposition without first winning a space for rationality and to form strategy. Next is to understand that nothing is certain and to get from a clean supply to a corrupted supply takes time and effort. Longer, definitely than it will take for you to get a good night’s sleep.
Those who supply GM products/seed are not certain of long term effects in the environment – this is both good and bad. We know what could go wrong, but we cannot know what we do not know i.e. the actual future. This means that our version of bad events may not happen. This isn’t to say it can’t happen or that general release is safe. It is just a way to place all points of the problem into a wider perspective. A mind that readily identifies patterns can become a powerful mental roadblock if allowed to reach an imbalance. Once the balance is lost, the patterns trap you. Realising the trap, indicated by being “terrifed with the thought”, then highlights the stall of thinking. There is a way forward. Life is not linear, regardless of how beautiful the pattern may seem. Life is full of chance. Chance is chance – pure, untouched, yet to be shaped, neither good nor bad, without bias, without prejudice. Nothing can be done in the terrified early hours of the cold morning. Relax.
Provided all the facts of the position have been presented, we can then work backwards from worst case, being vegetable and meat supplies corrupted with GM material.
Immediate solutions:
Urban farming; seedsaving/sharing; landshare; home based pork and poultry products; vegetarianism.
Start these intiatives now, you build up a following of like minds that in the very least is a real island of protection against an imagined tide of corrupted GM supply. The sooner they are started, the more time there is to address practical methods for protecting against cross-pollenation issues, legal oppositions and defenses etc. Pick a point of practical action and begin.
Indirect reactive influences:
Removing your food source from the corrupted food chain; self empowerment that can be extended to participants; reduction of demand for corrupted market; strengthening of necessity based community relationships.
There are other far more theoretical and complex imaginings supporting the premise that Dow and Monsanto could force-feed people bad food, but these take far more maneovering and time to manifest in NZ than it would take for a person to begin effectual action against them. In the context of an early morning wake-up call, they can be safely dismissed. These events could not happen entirely covertly i.e. the difference between clear and present danger and covert unknown dangers. If your mind starts to assign unrealistic power to unknown possibilities, catch it at work and realise the reality.
When dealing with possible scenarios based on supposition and likelihood, realise that nothing is certain. If, in the scenario, chance is allowed to make a tourist drop a handful of seed, then why is it that chance is then not allowed to intervene again later in a zero germination rate for the seeds? Maybe the natural pests and birds got the rest before they flowered?
Is this to say that we should do nothing, ever? Not at all. It is simply higlighting another trick of the mind to try to control the effect of chance for a negetive effect, resulting mostly, in people not being able to sleep at night. We cannot say what just one person, stating today on an urban farm will or will not cause to happen, even by small ripple effect, by this time next year. Don’t try to bully chance into being a bully. It would contravene the idea that nature knows best.
When confronted with the unknowable that threatens with the unforeseable, your first strategic weapon is your mind. Stay flexible. Remain calm. Step outside the cycle. View it from a distance, place all points in an overall wider context. Remember that bad does not exist without good, right without left, dark without light. If your mind recognises only negetive possibilities, you are acknowledging less than half the picture. Do not mentally oppose the unbalanced theoretical. Step back and be ready for opportunities for indirect action involving the actual.
Nice post Uturn , I just did some lucid calm thinking about reversing assets sales (on the No Assets sales post). The Monsanto issue is similar, play the buggers at their own game as you say by growing your own.
A little lucid clam thinking has also reminded me that the Monsanto model is truly integrated to the cheap petro chem model of agriculture and pesticides: oil decline will f**k them over in a number of ways.
If, in the scenario, chance is allowed to make a tourist drop a handful of seed, then why is it that chance is then not allowed to intervene again later in a zero germination rate for the seeds?
Um, because the opening of the hand is one chance, the sprouting of the seeds is hundreds of chances.
Actually, that entire rant was just a mind soothe seemingly designed to put peoples minds at rest about the dangers in GMO.
We need to massively support the Australian government in its stand and urge them to hold strong!!
Maybe the opposition parties can write an open letter to the Australian government
all it would take is one act of industrial espionage, such as a ‘tourist’ dropping a handful of GM seeds onto NZ soil and whammo Monsanto will be all over us with patent infringement cases and end up owning NZ.
watch Food Inc
and if you want to read some of their pitiful responses to the film http://www.monsanto.com/food-inc/Pages/default.aspx remember Monsanto was invited to be interviewed for the film but declined.
Bits of the TPP agreement that worry me are matters such as unions and worker’s rights. If governments cannot legislate in such ways as to reduce corporate profit margins, they may have difficulty opposing contract work, or the importation of short-term, low paid foreign workers while many of our own remain unemployed.
TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership (multinational economic agreement)) secrecy, well we have been confronted with this before when international deals were being discussed.. It’s so interesting in an objective way, to see wars being fought ostensibly to bring democracy. But the d word is just a game to play with, with less rigid rules than when playing Scrabble. But the politicians and their flunkeys and funders sure know how to use words and they can read philosophy, they just don’t understand it.
yeshe is imagining the effects on food and genetic engineering when the big corporates are allowed to have their way with us. I have been thinking of NZ as a naive girl with Tim Groser as a procurer employed by a hard-faced, money-obssessed, amoral group of confidence men and women within this country, catering for a powerful group of evil pirates looking for slave labour and treasure. We have this fascinating and dramatic serial unwinding which we can watch with avid interest as did the viewers in the film The Truman show.
Our girl wanders through the bush like little Red Riding Hood – will the wolfish group spirit her away or will the rescue party arrive to keep her alive? Fairy tales were largely precautionary tales for real people. I wait each day for the next episode with helpless anxiety.
Yes well…I was thinking of going for a G certificate, but even the kiddies today are going for, or being presented with, gritty adult ideas. (Recently I saw tshirt size 1 yr with a skull on it).
A sawn-off shotgun I believe fires off a lot of shot in all directions, yes could work.
Red Riding Hood in the TV show Once Upon a Time discovered that the wolf she feared so much, is herself. Her mother had been trying to protect her from the knowledge of being the latest in a long line of werewolves.
NZ maybe naive and ignorant on the future, because our “parents” have been keeping the truth from us. But that may be because we are more powerful than we realise… especially when we learn more of the truth.
Well that’s a great twist on the story. But energising a whole country to understand their inner werewolf would be too much for NZ I think. Though if we could make it a new fad we could spread the idea and develop that along complex network lines which are explained on Wikipedia which I still don’t understand. We need a new approach for sure, this same old same old isn’t going forward, just round and round down the gurgler.
Wow JMG continues his brilliant posts and his current theme of accepting the truth of what is happening to our industrial societies and the end game of that scenario. Last week he entitled his post, “collapse now and avoid the rush” and this week he discusses self-delusion.
I suspect, rather, that the refusal to recognize and deal with the end of progress will become a massive social force in the decade or so ahead of us, and that the great divide in American society during those years will not be the one between left and right, or between rich and poor, but between those who have accepted history’s verdict on our fantasy of perpetual progress, on the one hand, and those who cling to the fantasy despite all disconfirmations, on the other.
The hardcore megadeathdoomers don’t like him because he offers solutions for today and tomorrow and those solution start with us, where we are now, whatever we are doing. Many contributors to this site are up to speed on the situation, we can see it everywhere, and we are doing what we can. JMG makes me uncomfortable because his posts make me realise how much i am clinging onto this society and the benefits I get from it.
I tend to disagree with Greer a bit as I think that small societies with good renewable energy supplies and sustainable practices in resource use will be able to keep going. Yes, there will be power down. Nobody will have cars any more but there will still be transport and computers.
Have not explored that issue much but I tend toward any size community being able to continue to the level of the energy supply, which mean appropriate tools are necessary.
There has been a tendency on this blog for people to assume a non regression principle, i.e.that what we have and know about today is going to be possible forever. I would contend that the resources available will drive the technology we utilise, and that what we know about we may not be able to practice because of this. Lack of practice tends to lead to loss of practical memory, which can make re-adoption of known technology problematic.
Coming back to your small community contention when we talk high tech (computers etc) we are talking massive complexity of systems, supply, support etc with massive amounts of interdependence. The more complex the more chances there are for single point catastrophic failure. This would incline me towards a lower tech future being more likely than a retention of our core technologies.
You’ve also got to have a critical mass to be able to produce goods or services to pay off the bills for these things. Old school thinking I know but some sort of payment service will have to keep going in the future.
The classic example of the costs of modern infrastructure/technology at the moment is being played out in Kaipara with a small community being lumped with the cost of expensive wastewater treatment (albeit that the wastewater plant in question is oversized for the current population). A similar example is the wastewater plant at Kawakawa Bay that ended up costing $29M.
You’ve also got to have a critical mass to be able to produce goods or services to pay off the bills for these things.
Money != the economy
What that basically means is that if we have the physical resources available to do something then we can do it. We have the resources available but it does mean that over production in other areas (such as farming or building boats) and service industries (ZOMG, we won’t be able to afford to have anyone working at McDs) will have to be curtailed.
Or, as the tutors at uni said, economics is about the distribution of scarce resources and money is not a resource nor is it scarce.
Have not explored that issue much but I tend toward any size community being able to continue to the level of the energy supply, which mean appropriate tools are necessary.
Which means that we need to do a lot of R&D into renewable power generation
Coming back to your small community contention when we talk high tech (computers etc) we are talking massive complexity of systems, supply, support etc with massive amounts of interdependence.
Yep but it’s quite possible for us to do so. We have the base resources, we have access to the basic knowledge to do these things and we have universities and polytechnics for research and teaching.
We should be starting now but the R&D is to make what we have now more efficient and to tune it to local conditions. We also need to make it cover 100% of our needs.
Renewables aren’t going to cover all of our needs – and I am thinking here particularly of transportation. Coastal shipping, rail, air travel and public transport are all going to remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
Also (as I am quite sure you are aware) improving efficiency is not the real issue. Cutting total energy use is.
thanks for linking this, I confess to not having heard of this writer before now and I really like his/her blog and message. It’ll take a while to read the whole lot since 2006 but I’m inclined to do so based on the last three posts. Thanks mm
PS I started from the beginning and the fictional scenarios were very sweet.
I am finding it hard already to view comments on the “back down” of the Government on educational so called “policies”. We must have noted that Key accepted absolutely no responsibility, and settled for treating all opponents as a bunch of ignorant clowns incapable of comprehending Tory “wisdom” (is any one of that lot a qualified expert in education?)
Please be sure to read this morning’s N.Z. Herald editorial, probably the best they ever published!!
With auckland pop. Estimates to increase by 1 million by 2040, mainly as a result of immigration. Also given that nz grew due to net migration of 400,000 why is there no discussion as to the cost that this has resulted in. Growing pains that Auckland and NZ is incapable to cope with, and the consequences ( e.g high housing costs, increased infrusture and unity demand). We seem to have an amazing perpencity to create problems with bo associate solutions. Such growth will kill Auckland and thus NZ.
I don’t make comparisons with Hitler lightly and I’m not saying John Key is like Hitler but the hysterical voice of John Key when he talks about NZ not being involved in the illegal war in Iraq is truly frightening and makes me even more worried about NZ signing up to NATO.
I don’t see the problem. Comparison of todays people and activities with the biggest event in the 20th century is entirely applicable a lot of the time.
It’s fine when used rationally, but that’s a bit of a tautology.
The problem is when people with little life get obsessed by issues that are usually pretty little (e.g. maybe a local council placement of traffic lights near a school) or even imaginary (not touching with a bargepole). They lose perspective and start saying stuff like ‘this 30kph speed restriction is worse than H~!”. And everything goes downhill from there.
And like most things, if it gets overused it loses its ability to adequately communicate the user’s perspective.
Have people read in this morning’s Herald about the Government’s new scheme relating to the long-term unemployed? To my eye, the old scheme looks somewhat better and simpler! However, maybe I have got it wrong. Would like to know what others think.
If I have got it right, the Government input is now reduced from a total of $92 to a revised total of $62! Are we, again, being sold “a bill of goods”?
Have people read in this morning’s Herald about the Government’s new scheme relating to the long-term unemployed?
I read it on their website.. or think I did! Something similar anyway…
Very jolly complicated, and as far as I can see, much less helpful than the previous ones!
Apologies to the watchers the writers the minders and the keepers of The Standard.
-if this posting results in a ban i unreservedly accept it and have weighed that against the importance of the act which is itself a last resort dictated by circumstances not of my making.
A direct question to Pete George:
Are you the Peter G who set up the No Asset Sales petition at Avaaz.org?
Earlier today on your blog i asked you that direct question. Instead of replying like an adult you removed the post and have not responded. If you had time to remove the post you had time to reply. I feel you left me no option but to inquire more publicly.
I have contacted Avaaz re the posting. I outlined the situation here in NZ and requested a clear header be added to the on-line petition explaining that it has no validity in the referendum process and is actually doing more harm than good. Something most here would be well aware of, including you Peter George.
PG I gave you an opportunity to answer a very simple question but instead you removed the post that has been part of your site since the petition’s inception. ( Really pathetic!) You slid away under your rock and this act of malfeasance will not be forgotten. (Sure you are not in public office but you basically imagine yourself to be, so it is more than apt)
note: for full disclosure i will happily post the email sent to Avaaz.org if requested
( after editing identifiers )
p.s. PG after discovering you had removed the No Asset Sales post promoting the Avaaz.org petition i took screengrabs so don’t try to repost it. I wish i had done earlier as well but the idea you would remove the post supporting the petition never occurred to me, naive little bunny that i am
[Your question seems fair to me freedom. You’re not speculating about the identity of anonymous / pseudonymous participants here. You’re just asking Pete George if he started a petition. — r0b]
No, I haven’t started any petitions. I don’t know what happened to your question on the blog, I haven’t had time to do anything there. Back later this morning.
The question wasn’t about ‘any’ petitions, it was about one specific petition. Are you the Pete G. who started the Avaaz ssset sales petition or not? Yes or no?
Just because I can .. please Pete, may I ask you — does anyone else, or did anyone else, have access to your blog for writing and/or posting/ or deleting ? May you receive it as a fair question … many thx.
You deleted the entire thread that was promoting the Avaaz No Asset Sales Petition, not just my posted question. As it is your blog you very well know what happened and you now decide to besmirch the security record and the reputation of WordPress.com by insinuating that a phantom manipulated your blog and removed a thread that you had been actively promoting. That, or you are accusing me of fabricating the existence of said thread.
I stand by the facts asserted in the post above and only wish i had taken screen grabs of the blog when i first visited the thread, but why would i ever suspect it would be removed. Having screen grabs of the current listings only shows the post is not there. I cannot prove it ever was but as i am not prone to posting on non-existent threads i know it was and you know it was.
I thank The Standard for allowing this matter to be aired. I sincerely hope it offers many here a moment of reflection as to the character and intentions of Pete George.
I will continue to do what i can to promote and support the real petition but on the Peter G petition i am done, i have had enough of my time wasted on this saboteur
freedom, IMHO I don’t think that PG is the author of the online petition although I share your and others’ views on PG’s disingenuity etc. It has been a relief not having him spewing here for two days.
The reasons I don’t think it is him are that he is very consistent in using “Pete” not “Peter” in his blogging across many blogs and on Linked In etc (Yes I checked) and the online petition originator is “Peter G”. The writing style and language used in the petition and its updates are also very different from that of PG – for example, PG hardly knows the difference between “Government” and “Parliament” and has used these incorrectly a number of times. The online petition is very clear in its language, eg The bill will now be debated by the Committee of the Whole House, and opposition parties are planning to propose hundreds of amendments to delay Government legislation.
That is not to say that someone else could not have wrote it for him! But my gut instinct is that it is not him, but that is in no way of a defence of him as i have no respect etc for PG.
I signed the online petition is an instant reaction when it was first put up but have also signed and totally support the official referendum. I agree that it would be easy for people to mistakenly think the online petition is the referendum one, and wish that the online one had made it clear that they were not one and the same. There does not seem to be any way to communicate this to the author. My reading of the online petition was/is that it is an attempt to get as many to sign in a short space of time (and almost 25,000 as of a few minutes ago is pretty astounding in 3-4 days) to thow at Key et al next week when the Bill goes into Committee stages.
I am really pleased you raised the question as to whether Pete George was the author – and in some perverse ways I hope that my opinion is wrong. On the other hand, our discussion of this as a possibility also plays right into what I also think is PG’s raison d’etre – to be the centre of attention and to think he is much more important and influential than he really is.
i will reply to Pete here and everyone can be assured this is the end of this matter although little is clear.
I agree Pete, nothing about this is usual. All i can say is something very very strange is going on. I am certainly a magnet for strange and would love to understand why. I saw the petition, saw the creator, went to your blog, saw the post promoting the petition on your blog and submitted a question using the reply function.
If you declare you did not start the Avaaz petition i must accept that, but if you say you have not deleted a posting on the petition then i guess i hallucinated the whole thing and should seek immediate psychiatric help! I have had professional counseling for PTSD in the past and no suspicion of any psychiatric illness was ever identified in fact the two therapists I have worked with both stated clearly that i have a clear and perceptive grasp of reality.
I guess it is a Ripley’s moment and we all end up as much in the dark as when we began.
Someone somewhere knows what is going on and I hope they are happy with the disquiet that has been generated. Perhaps someday they will fill me in on the joke because i do not find it funny, neither do i suspect does Pete who it appears has been unjustly accosted by me on this subject. I do not know what else to do, despite my misgivings i feel i must say sorry Pete for the suspicion that you tried to sabotage the petition process. As the Petition is 305 signatories away from its goal, I guess we might discover who Peter G is when the avaaz petition gets delivered to parliament as promised. Pete , i am sorry.
I saw the petition, saw the creator, went to your blog, saw the post promoting the petition on your blog and submitted a question using the reply function.
There was no post promoting the petition on the blog (the Yourdunedin.org one) that i have seen and i don’t know how there could have been unless hacked – and subsequently unhacked.
You posted on About which had no link to the petition.
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Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
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Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
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Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
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Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
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Home Office Secretary Theresa May said in an editorial published ahead of the bill’s unveiling that only evil-doers should be frightened.
“and in a sharply-worded editorial the nation’s top law enforcement official accused those worried about the surveillance program of being either criminals or conspiracy theorists”
“In some cases, the bill envisages monitoring the information in real time”
–Welcome to the jobs new growth sector
This world is heading the wrong way very quickly.
Sad news about the dissolution of Egypt’s parliament by the high court:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/2012614172410271831.html
AJ news this morning talked about the “deep state” in Egypt. i.e.:
The reactionary militaristic power embedded in the state’s institutions: the courts etc.
This set me to wondering about the nature of NZ’s “deep state” and what is involved? The treasury? The media? The courts? The SIS?…. and how much it has been infiltrated by the so-called “neoliberal” discourses and practices?
We’ve seen a member of a well known South Island farming family claim some pretty impressive scalps this week.
Carol the questions you raise, are the questions which most want to blow off as “conspiracy”, and yet there are examples even in the MSM every day, which illustrate the realities of how the world is run, Egypt being the recent predictable example, shown by your post.
People want (need) to believe in accidents, coincidence, or stupidity of government..
As I’ve heard it Egypt was in a bind anyway. Aren’t there two candidates, one from the Muslim Brotherhood, with a fear of them by many as they may institute sharia law, and some guy who is part of the old regime.
Egyptian Amr Bargisi, who may or may not be on a neo-lib payroll, is very pessimistic about his country’s future.
Can someone help me with this — I woke in the freezing dead of night terrified with the thought that the TPP could be used by Monsanto and Dow to force GM substances into our food and feed markets ?
Just before the last election Nick Smith was sprung in his ignorance of a new study being done to support GM substances, and only recently in the House someone referred to ‘innovative’ agriculture.
Anyone know anything more about this study ?
The most idiotic thing of all is that we are one of the last bastions of non GMO — surely, this is a potential market of huge value ?
How do we oppose the TPP when none of it will be made public until after it is signed ??
So the question is how to oppose before you know when to oppose or what it is you are opposing; and then how to get out of the loop which uses a clause that cannot be refuted because it exists in the grey area of the probable?
The simple answer is to side step. Then you at least eliminate the imbalance of preparing for opposition without first winning a space for rationality and to form strategy. Next is to understand that nothing is certain and to get from a clean supply to a corrupted supply takes time and effort. Longer, definitely than it will take for you to get a good night’s sleep.
Those who supply GM products/seed are not certain of long term effects in the environment – this is both good and bad. We know what could go wrong, but we cannot know what we do not know i.e. the actual future. This means that our version of bad events may not happen. This isn’t to say it can’t happen or that general release is safe. It is just a way to place all points of the problem into a wider perspective. A mind that readily identifies patterns can become a powerful mental roadblock if allowed to reach an imbalance. Once the balance is lost, the patterns trap you. Realising the trap, indicated by being “terrifed with the thought”, then highlights the stall of thinking. There is a way forward. Life is not linear, regardless of how beautiful the pattern may seem. Life is full of chance. Chance is chance – pure, untouched, yet to be shaped, neither good nor bad, without bias, without prejudice. Nothing can be done in the terrified early hours of the cold morning. Relax.
Provided all the facts of the position have been presented, we can then work backwards from worst case, being vegetable and meat supplies corrupted with GM material.
Immediate solutions:
Urban farming; seedsaving/sharing; landshare; home based pork and poultry products; vegetarianism.
Start these intiatives now, you build up a following of like minds that in the very least is a real island of protection against an imagined tide of corrupted GM supply. The sooner they are started, the more time there is to address practical methods for protecting against cross-pollenation issues, legal oppositions and defenses etc. Pick a point of practical action and begin.
Indirect reactive influences:
Removing your food source from the corrupted food chain; self empowerment that can be extended to participants; reduction of demand for corrupted market; strengthening of necessity based community relationships.
There are other far more theoretical and complex imaginings supporting the premise that Dow and Monsanto could force-feed people bad food, but these take far more maneovering and time to manifest in NZ than it would take for a person to begin effectual action against them. In the context of an early morning wake-up call, they can be safely dismissed. These events could not happen entirely covertly i.e. the difference between clear and present danger and covert unknown dangers. If your mind starts to assign unrealistic power to unknown possibilities, catch it at work and realise the reality.
When dealing with possible scenarios based on supposition and likelihood, realise that nothing is certain. If, in the scenario, chance is allowed to make a tourist drop a handful of seed, then why is it that chance is then not allowed to intervene again later in a zero germination rate for the seeds? Maybe the natural pests and birds got the rest before they flowered?
Is this to say that we should do nothing, ever? Not at all. It is simply higlighting another trick of the mind to try to control the effect of chance for a negetive effect, resulting mostly, in people not being able to sleep at night. We cannot say what just one person, stating today on an urban farm will or will not cause to happen, even by small ripple effect, by this time next year. Don’t try to bully chance into being a bully. It would contravene the idea that nature knows best.
When confronted with the unknowable that threatens with the unforeseable, your first strategic weapon is your mind. Stay flexible. Remain calm. Step outside the cycle. View it from a distance, place all points in an overall wider context. Remember that bad does not exist without good, right without left, dark without light. If your mind recognises only negetive possibilities, you are acknowledging less than half the picture. Do not mentally oppose the unbalanced theoretical. Step back and be ready for opportunities for indirect action involving the actual.
Effective minds require sleep. Stay effective.
Nice post Uturn , I just did some lucid calm thinking about reversing assets sales (on the No Assets sales post). The Monsanto issue is similar, play the buggers at their own game as you say by growing your own.
A little lucid clam thinking has also reminded me that the Monsanto model is truly integrated to the cheap petro chem model of agriculture and pesticides: oil decline will f**k them over in a number of ways.
really great comment Uturn.
Um, because the opening of the hand is one chance, the sprouting of the seeds is hundreds of chances.
Actually, that entire rant was just a mind soothe seemingly designed to put peoples minds at rest about the dangers in GMO.
We need to massively support the Australian government in its stand and urge them to hold strong!!
Maybe the opposition parties can write an open letter to the Australian government
all it would take is one act of industrial espionage, such as a ‘tourist’ dropping a handful of GM seeds onto NZ soil and whammo Monsanto will be all over us with patent infringement cases and end up owning NZ.
watch David vs Monsanto
http://archive.org/details/DavidV.Monsanto
watch Food Inc
and if you want to read some of their pitiful responses to the film http://www.monsanto.com/food-inc/Pages/default.aspx remember Monsanto was invited to be interviewed for the film but declined.
Most importantly, use your own powers of critical perception and ask who the TPP will benefit?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1206/S00186/national-says-yes-to-investor-rights-to-sue.htm
Bits of the TPP agreement that worry me are matters such as unions and worker’s rights. If governments cannot legislate in such ways as to reduce corporate profit margins, they may have difficulty opposing contract work, or the importation of short-term, low paid foreign workers while many of our own remain unemployed.
TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership (multinational economic agreement)) secrecy, well we have been confronted with this before when international deals were being discussed.. It’s so interesting in an objective way, to see wars being fought ostensibly to bring democracy. But the d word is just a game to play with, with less rigid rules than when playing Scrabble. But the politicians and their flunkeys and funders sure know how to use words and they can read philosophy, they just don’t understand it.
yeshe is imagining the effects on food and genetic engineering when the big corporates are allowed to have their way with us. I have been thinking of NZ as a naive girl with Tim Groser as a procurer employed by a hard-faced, money-obssessed, amoral group of confidence men and women within this country, catering for a powerful group of evil pirates looking for slave labour and treasure. We have this fascinating and dramatic serial unwinding which we can watch with avid interest as did the viewers in the film The Truman show.
Our girl wanders through the bush like little Red Riding Hood – will the wolfish group spirit her away or will the rescue party arrive to keep her alive? Fairy tales were largely precautionary tales for real people. I wait each day for the next episode with helpless anxiety.
My version of Little Red Riding Hood has her carrying a basket with a gingham cloth cover, which when removed reveals a sawn off shotgun……..
Yes well…I was thinking of going for a G certificate, but even the kiddies today are going for, or being presented with, gritty adult ideas. (Recently I saw tshirt size 1 yr with a skull on it).
A sawn-off shotgun I believe fires off a lot of shot in all directions, yes could work.
Red Riding Hood in the TV show Once Upon a Time discovered that the wolf she feared so much, is herself. Her mother had been trying to protect her from the knowledge of being the latest in a long line of werewolves.
NZ maybe naive and ignorant on the future, because our “parents” have been keeping the truth from us. But that may be because we are more powerful than we realise… especially when we learn more of the truth.
Knowledge and acceptance of the truth will allow self-governance, being kept in the dark and fed BS keeps us slaves.
Guess which seems to be the one that this government wants?
“Guess which seems to be the one that this government wants?”
–Not just this govt though is it!
Well that’s a great twist on the story. But energising a whole country to understand their inner werewolf would be too much for NZ I think. Though if we could make it a new fad we could spread the idea and develop that along complex network lines which are explained on Wikipedia which I still don’t understand. We need a new approach for sure, this same old same old isn’t going forward, just round and round down the gurgler.
Wow JMG continues his brilliant posts and his current theme of accepting the truth of what is happening to our industrial societies and the end game of that scenario. Last week he entitled his post, “collapse now and avoid the rush” and this week he discusses self-delusion.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/
The hardcore megadeathdoomers don’t like him because he offers solutions for today and tomorrow and those solution start with us, where we are now, whatever we are doing. Many contributors to this site are up to speed on the situation, we can see it everywhere, and we are doing what we can. JMG makes me uncomfortable because his posts make me realise how much i am clinging onto this society and the benefits I get from it.
Greer, Orlov and Kunstler, the Holy Trinity of truly clear thinking on matters of the future…..
Actual Link
I tend to disagree with Greer a bit as I think that small societies with good renewable energy supplies and sustainable practices in resource use will be able to keep going. Yes, there will be power down. Nobody will have cars any more but there will still be transport and computers.
But, it does need to be a small society.
Have not explored that issue much but I tend toward any size community being able to continue to the level of the energy supply, which mean appropriate tools are necessary.
There has been a tendency on this blog for people to assume a non regression principle, i.e.that what we have and know about today is going to be possible forever. I would contend that the resources available will drive the technology we utilise, and that what we know about we may not be able to practice because of this. Lack of practice tends to lead to loss of practical memory, which can make re-adoption of known technology problematic.
Coming back to your small community contention when we talk high tech (computers etc) we are talking massive complexity of systems, supply, support etc with massive amounts of interdependence. The more complex the more chances there are for single point catastrophic failure. This would incline me towards a lower tech future being more likely than a retention of our core technologies.
You’ve also got to have a critical mass to be able to produce goods or services to pay off the bills for these things. Old school thinking I know but some sort of payment service will have to keep going in the future.
The classic example of the costs of modern infrastructure/technology at the moment is being played out in Kaipara with a small community being lumped with the cost of expensive wastewater treatment (albeit that the wastewater plant in question is oversized for the current population). A similar example is the wastewater plant at Kawakawa Bay that ended up costing $29M.
Money != the economy
What that basically means is that if we have the physical resources available to do something then we can do it. We have the resources available but it does mean that over production in other areas (such as farming or building boats) and service industries (ZOMG, we won’t be able to afford to have anyone working at McDs) will have to be curtailed.
Or, as the tutors at uni said, economics is about the distribution of scarce resources and money is not a resource nor is it scarce.
Which means that we need to do a lot of R&D into renewable power generation
Yep but it’s quite possible for us to do so. We have the base resources, we have access to the basic knowledge to do these things and we have universities and polytechnics for research and teaching.
I wouldn’t bother.
Hydro, localised and national grid wind generation and solar thermal is 80% of what we need.
Let’s just get on with it now.
We should be starting now but the R&D is to make what we have now more efficient and to tune it to local conditions. We also need to make it cover 100% of our needs.
Renewables aren’t going to cover all of our needs – and I am thinking here particularly of transportation. Coastal shipping, rail, air travel and public transport are all going to remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
Also (as I am quite sure you are aware) improving efficiency is not the real issue. Cutting total energy use is.
Coastal shipping = sail
Rail/public transport = electric
Air travel will be non-existent
We can produce enough to cover what we need if we build the infrastructure. And there’s one other thing:
We have no choice, renewables must cover what we need.
Which is why cars will be gone.
thanks for linking this, I confess to not having heard of this writer before now and I really like his/her blog and message. It’ll take a while to read the whole lot since 2006 but I’m inclined to do so based on the last three posts. Thanks mm
PS I started from the beginning and the fictional scenarios were very sweet.
Hating on the Herb – Propaganda Lolz
I am finding it hard already to view comments on the “back down” of the Government on educational so called “policies”. We must have noted that Key accepted absolutely no responsibility, and settled for treating all opponents as a bunch of ignorant clowns incapable of comprehending Tory “wisdom” (is any one of that lot a qualified expert in education?)
Please be sure to read this morning’s N.Z. Herald editorial, probably the best they ever published!!
+1
With auckland pop. Estimates to increase by 1 million by 2040, mainly as a result of immigration. Also given that nz grew due to net migration of 400,000 why is there no discussion as to the cost that this has resulted in. Growing pains that Auckland and NZ is incapable to cope with, and the consequences ( e.g high housing costs, increased infrusture and unity demand). We seem to have an amazing perpencity to create problems with bo associate solutions. Such growth will kill Auckland and thus NZ.
I don’t make comparisons with Hitler lightly and I’m not saying John Key is like Hitler but the hysterical voice of John Key when he talks about NZ not being involved in the illegal war in Iraq is truly frightening and makes me even more worried about NZ signing up to NATO.
Yeah, yeah it’s the H word purgatory
[lprent: Yep. It is one of the classic misuse words to catch trolls. To know that it is there is to make it simple to get around. 😈 ]
I’m glad you came to the conclusion that this is not how I used it. 🙂
I don’t see the problem. Comparison of todays people and activities with the biggest event in the 20th century is entirely applicable a lot of the time.
Lest we forget ffs ……….
It’s fine when used rationally, but that’s a bit of a tautology.
The problem is when people with little life get obsessed by issues that are usually pretty little (e.g. maybe a local council placement of traffic lights near a school) or even imaginary (not touching with a bargepole). They lose perspective and start saying stuff like ‘this 30kph speed restriction is worse than H~!”. And everything goes downhill from there.
And like most things, if it gets overused it loses its ability to adequately communicate the user’s perspective.
Hi vto,
I thought this might interest you. It is a complete map of the inner circle of Bilderberg and their business interests.
well they both had/have a thing for building motorways.
Austerity Failure – UK to counter austerity with huge cash injection
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159480/140bn-kiss-life-Britain-Chancellor-Bank-dramatic-bid-hand-small-firms-house-buyers-cheap-loans–gamble-work.html
Correct Peter, instead, tax cuts are the answer http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-20/news/31372306_1_stimulus-ponytail-financial-crisis
Although these would be labelled ‘tax cuts for the rich’ and slammed by the left if it happened in NZ.
Have people read in this morning’s Herald about the Government’s new scheme relating to the long-term unemployed? To my eye, the old scheme looks somewhat better and simpler! However, maybe I have got it wrong. Would like to know what others think.
If I have got it right, the Government input is now reduced from a total of $92 to a revised total of $62! Are we, again, being sold “a bill of goods”?
I read it on their website.. or think I did! Something similar anyway…
Very jolly complicated, and as far as I can see, much less helpful than the previous ones!
Apologies to the watchers the writers the minders and the keepers of The Standard.
-if this posting results in a ban i unreservedly accept it and have weighed that against the importance of the act which is itself a last resort dictated by circumstances not of my making.
A direct question to Pete George:
Are you the Peter G who set up the No Asset Sales petition at Avaaz.org?
Earlier today on your blog i asked you that direct question. Instead of replying like an adult you removed the post and have not responded. If you had time to remove the post you had time to reply. I feel you left me no option but to inquire more publicly.
I have contacted Avaaz re the posting. I outlined the situation here in NZ and requested a clear header be added to the on-line petition explaining that it has no validity in the referendum process and is actually doing more harm than good. Something most here would be well aware of, including you Peter George.
PG I gave you an opportunity to answer a very simple question but instead you removed the post that has been part of your site since the petition’s inception. ( Really pathetic!) You slid away under your rock and this act of malfeasance will not be forgotten. (Sure you are not in public office but you basically imagine yourself to be, so it is more than apt)
note: for full disclosure i will happily post the email sent to Avaaz.org if requested
( after editing identifiers )
p.s. PG after discovering you had removed the No Asset Sales post promoting the Avaaz.org petition i took screengrabs so don’t try to repost it. I wish i had done earlier as well but the idea you would remove the post supporting the petition never occurred to me, naive little bunny that i am
[Your question seems fair to me freedom. You’re not speculating about the identity of anonymous / pseudonymous participants here. You’re just asking Pete George if he started a petition. — r0b]
No, I haven’t started any petitions. I don’t know what happened to your question on the blog, I haven’t had time to do anything there. Back later this morning.
The question wasn’t about ‘any’ petitions, it was about one specific petition. Are you the Pete G. who started the Avaaz ssset sales petition or not? Yes or no?
FFS, “I haven’t started any petitions” means I have not started any petitions, at all, zero, including the Avaaz petition mentioned.
Are you the Pete G. who started the Avaaz ssset sales petition or not? Yes or no?
In case you still don’t undertsand that – No.
And that was under “Peter G.”, I don’t use that variant of my name online.
Just because I can .. please Pete, may I ask you — does anyone else, or did anyone else, have access to your blog for writing and/or posting/ or deleting ? May you receive it as a fair question … many thx.
I don’t know how anyone else could have had access to the Yourdunedin.org blog.
to PG: You disingenuous person,
You deleted the entire thread that was promoting the Avaaz No Asset Sales Petition, not just my posted question. As it is your blog you very well know what happened and you now decide to besmirch the security record and the reputation of WordPress.com by insinuating that a phantom manipulated your blog and removed a thread that you had been actively promoting. That, or you are accusing me of fabricating the existence of said thread.
I stand by the facts asserted in the post above and only wish i had taken screen grabs of the blog when i first visited the thread, but why would i ever suspect it would be removed. Having screen grabs of the current listings only shows the post is not there. I cannot prove it ever was but as i am not prone to posting on non-existent threads i know it was and you know it was.
I thank The Standard for allowing this matter to be aired. I sincerely hope it offers many here a moment of reflection as to the character and intentions of Pete George.
I will continue to do what i can to promote and support the real petition but on the Peter G petition i am done, i have had enough of my time wasted on this saboteur
freedom, IMHO I don’t think that PG is the author of the online petition although I share your and others’ views on PG’s disingenuity etc. It has been a relief not having him spewing here for two days.
The reasons I don’t think it is him are that he is very consistent in using “Pete” not “Peter” in his blogging across many blogs and on Linked In etc (Yes I checked) and the online petition originator is “Peter G”. The writing style and language used in the petition and its updates are also very different from that of PG – for example, PG hardly knows the difference between “Government” and “Parliament” and has used these incorrectly a number of times. The online petition is very clear in its language, eg
The bill will now be debated by the Committee of the Whole House, and opposition parties are planning to propose hundreds of amendments to delay Government legislation.
That is not to say that someone else could not have wrote it for him! But my gut instinct is that it is not him, but that is in no way of a defence of him as i have no respect etc for PG.
I signed the online petition is an instant reaction when it was first put up but have also signed and totally support the official referendum. I agree that it would be easy for people to mistakenly think the online petition is the referendum one, and wish that the online one had made it clear that they were not one and the same. There does not seem to be any way to communicate this to the author. My reading of the online petition was/is that it is an attempt to get as many to sign in a short space of time (and almost 25,000 as of a few minutes ago is pretty astounding in 3-4 days) to thow at Key et al next week when the Bill goes into Committee stages.
I am really pleased you raised the question as to whether Pete George was the author – and in some perverse ways I hope that my opinion is wrong. On the other hand, our discussion of this as a possibility also plays right into what I also think is PG’s raison d’etre – to be the centre of attention and to think he is much more important and influential than he really is.
I’m not convinced the online petition is a bad thing.
If anything it’s promoting awareness of the issue. It just needs to be followed up with people on the streets getting people signing.
freedom, If you use an archive service, you might find that it’s backed up somewhere.
I didn’t delete anything. I’ve just replied at http://yourdunedin.org/about/
I suspect you were looking in the wrong place/blog, commenting on “About” is not the usual place to put or find comments.
i will reply to Pete here and everyone can be assured this is the end of this matter although little is clear.
I agree Pete, nothing about this is usual. All i can say is something very very strange is going on. I am certainly a magnet for strange and would love to understand why. I saw the petition, saw the creator, went to your blog, saw the post promoting the petition on your blog and submitted a question using the reply function.
If you declare you did not start the Avaaz petition i must accept that, but if you say you have not deleted a posting on the petition then i guess i hallucinated the whole thing and should seek immediate psychiatric help! I have had professional counseling for PTSD in the past and no suspicion of any psychiatric illness was ever identified in fact the two therapists I have worked with both stated clearly that i have a clear and perceptive grasp of reality.
I guess it is a Ripley’s moment and we all end up as much in the dark as when we began.
Someone somewhere knows what is going on and I hope they are happy with the disquiet that has been generated. Perhaps someday they will fill me in on the joke because i do not find it funny, neither do i suspect does Pete who it appears has been unjustly accosted by me on this subject. I do not know what else to do, despite my misgivings i feel i must say sorry Pete for the suspicion that you tried to sabotage the petition process. As the Petition is 305 signatories away from its goal, I guess we might discover who Peter G is when the avaaz petition gets delivered to parliament as promised. Pete , i am sorry.
Kudos to you, freedom – you have my respect.
There was no post promoting the petition on the blog (the Yourdunedin.org one) that i have seen and i don’t know how there could have been unless hacked – and subsequently unhacked.
You posted on About which had no link to the petition.
Apology accepted.
Pete, not Peter Dunne making some mischief over the asset sales and using you as the fall guy?
I agree, dd. There is not just one way to achieve a result, and in the case of the partial asset sales, everything should be tried.